NC woman heads family, finds plenty to keep busy

In this April 11, 2013 photo, Sarah Baskerville enjoys a conversation while participating in a quilting group at Miss Lou's Quilting Studio in Henderson, N.C. Sarah Baskerville, wife of District Court Judge Randolph Baskerville and mother of state Rep. Nathan Baskerville, says quilting was a retirement idea, a return to her mother's hobby. Now it has become a passion for her, too. (AP Photo/The Daily Dispatch, Mark Dolejs)

AP

MARTIN FISHER,The Daily Dispatch of Henderson

Published: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 9:42 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 9:42 a.m.

HENDERSON, N.C. (AP) — She is one of Miss Lou's quilting "dozen" on Thursdays, a Pinkston Elementary School volunteer on Wednesdays, and Sundays takes her to Cornerstone Christian Community Church, but she is matriarch to the prominent Baskerville family every day.

Sarah Baskerville, wife of District Court Judge Randolph Baskerville and mother of state Rep. Nathan Baskerville, says quilting was a retirement idea, a return to her mother's hobby. Now it has become a passion for her, too.

She retired 10 years ago from a 30-year career in education, the last 15 as a counselor at Southern Vance High School. To Sarah, volunteering and seeing how much of her quilting group's work goes to charitable causes has yielded opportunities to touch hundreds of lives outside her family circle.

All told, she stays pleasantly occupied, "volunteering where I can, working in the church," she said, "and I am pretty involved in my sorority. The quilting is addictive. I'm a quilter, and that is my passion. I love to do that."

On Thursdays, Baskerville joins her fellow quilters of "Miss Lou's Dozen" that has grown now to more than 12, and they take on each other's projects in the classical form of a quilting bee gathering.

The group makes quilts for their children and other family members: cousins, nieces and nephews and on and on, plus plenty more for charity. Baskerville estimates that the group has provided a couple hundred quilts over the years to area nursing homes.

They also make other charity items: about 50 stockings for area children's homes this past Christmas. They have not decided on what to make yet, but their concentration for Christmas 2013 is the men's shelter in Henderson.

"This year, we'll be doing a project for them," Baskerville said. "It might be quilts, or maybe knit hats, something. Every year we do a project for charity."

She added the group will get started with the men's shelter project pretty soon, because it is done through the year with a presentation planned for Christmastime.

In taking turns with each other's quilting projects, the group moves through the year to another goal: a quilt show, with an invitation to the public to vote on a winning quilt for the year.

Quilting was a part of her Hoke County childhood as the youngest of eight children in a farming family, and she remembers her mother's quilting as a break from the regular routines of outdoor work.

"We were farmers, just regular farmers," she said, "from cotton to cucumbers, we would do farming."

"My mom used to do it," she added. "They used to go house to house as a quilting group and make each other's quilts. I used to sneak under the quilt while they were working, and I would listen to them talk."

A conversation around the quilting bee while working on their art is another attraction of the hobby. The members of the group could talk about almost anything as the quilt takes shape.

On some rare occasions they may even discuss the men in their lives.

"They are both very well-grounded men," Baskerville said of her husband and her son. "My husband came from a well-grounded family that believed in hard work and doing for yourself, and he instilled that in Nathan, too."

She has a daughter who is married: Latoyia Baskerville Smith lives in Georgia, and she hopes first granddaughter, Elyse, is the first of several grandchildren.

The mother said she doesn't pressure her son on his bachelor eligibility.

"I think it will work out," she said. "I think there is a person for everyone, and he will find that person."

The whole family, and a constellation of friends, rallied to the Nathan Baskerville campaign when he decided to run for the House of Representatives. One issue that the family had to work with was the fact that as a judge, Randolph could not be openly endorsing a candidate.

"Nathan talked with all of us about running," she said. "His uncle, Leslie, has been there at every step, a constant adviser and one of Nathan's greatest supporters. Everyone who could work on phone calls, putting up posters."

Dad was never gone from the picture, but he kept in the background because of his role as a judge.

"Nathan is still his son, and he was very supportive of his decision to run," Sarah said.

She said that conversations in the Baskerville home might include political issues, but her men know her well already and as a family they closely share the same values after all.

"I basically try to be myself, and they know me and know my stand," Baskerville said. "I let them know how I feel about things."

A wider conversation emanating from the younger generation of her clan, however, has come from some younger nephews asking, well, what about their quilts.

"I have made quilts for my sisters and my sisters' daughters, made with their personalities and interests in mind," Baskerville said. "Now nephews are wanting them because they're jealous of their sisters."

It's not easy making quilts for men, though, "because they're complicated, and you can't go with the usual flowery designs. You have to find more masculine themes."

She's busy finding just the right fabrics to help define the lives of the men she loves.

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